A Joyous Day In The Life Of A ZeroLight 3D Artist

What is it like to "Dev" at ZL? Well, for me at least, it all starts at 6am! The dog can't walk herself, you see. A bright and early start then, but choosing to live 30 miles from ZL towers means I have to be the early bird if I want to arrive at a sociable hour. "30 miles?!" I hear you scream. Don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds; I love living in my home town surrounded by all my old pals, including my car sharing ZL tea buddy. After a nice relaxing (ish) morning, we're leaving Darlo' (Darlington) at 7 and rolling up to work at 8. Getting to work nice and early has its perks: ZeroLight has daily flexi-time, so if I'm a good boy and get all my colouring in done, I can leave at 4pm! Then I'm home and free to spend quality time with the family and get on with my many hobbies. See, I told you it wasn't all bad!

Arrival

Once we park up at the beautifully Sci-Fi Sage, it's just a short strut over to the studio where we can finally get on with the most important part of any Englishman's day: making a brew. Thankfully, the raw materials are all ready and waiting in the ZeroLight kitchen. A quick run up the stairs, (with a brief pause to admire the rooftop view) is all that stands between me and the first of the day's many teas - mmmm Twining's Breakfast (sorry Yorkshire). I'm all for a balanced diet, so, while I'm up on the Terrace, I reach past the fruit bowl to grab a free KitKat Chunky and pack of Beefy Monster Munch to round off my perfect breakfast. Often, people bring in tasty treats, too. Today, it's my turn - I provided a cracking quiche made by a retired dinner lady; you know it's good.

Graft

Time to get our work on. My job consists of creating environments: lots of 3D and 2D with a pinch of problem solving, which I love doing, so the morning flashes before my eyes, honest. We're a relatively small team, so whether we're working to solve the latest Photoshop headache or creating a new surface or material, we're always bouncing off one another. "Constructive Criticism" is always welcomed with wide open arms here; it keeps us all fresh and on the ball. The afternoon is more of the same, with the odd meeting slotted in to keep the brass updated; sometimes we may even speak to ‘THE CODERS' - scary bunch.

Lunch

Being on the Quayside, options for lunch are endless; the choice is actually a little overwhelming! But some days, I like to keep it simple and just sip my soup on the Terrace while watching our resident table tennis aficionados duel it out over dinner. This involves a surprising amount of garment stripping, far more than you would think…

Other days, when I feel like a treat, I go all out and have lunch with a mate, waving my ZeroLight lanyard as I go to make the most of our local discounts. With showers on site, I can also go for a run, which I enjoy doing so much that I even created a running club (complete with a logo, of course). The ZL community are a pretty hard-core bunch, so even on our first cold, foggy club day, we still had 5 Tyne trotters all out busting a gut!

Clock Out

Once the day's jobs are ticked off, it's time to head back home. So, my co-pilot and I fly back across the Tyne and head down the motorway, singing all the way to home sweet home.